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Age brings many new experiences. Some you’d rather do without. Everything starts to hurt. You’re tired all the time. Cynicism lurks behind you like a hungry but patient wolf. Yet some changes are good. You finally begin to shed school debt. You streamline your processes. And best of all, you find it easier every day to shuck off the concerns of others. The sweaty, calculated poise you found so crucial in middle school has faded to a mewling ghost. Instead, you value the practical. You have work to do, and you don’t have time to impress anyone. I’ve reached such an age, and that’s probably why I want to buy something rear-driven, strip it of all excess, and drive it everywhere. I want a kart hack. Continue reading “The Case for the Kart Hack”

The countershaft bearing in my 1998 Honda Civic sounded like a rain stick full of rusted lug nuts, and the clutch was starting to slip. Despite having spent only $760 to buy the black sedan, I had already injected hundreds more into a new exhaust header, aluminum radiator, stereo, and a dump bed full of other parts that hadn’t held up to 200,000 miles and almost 20 years of hard labor. And frankly, I didn’t feel like pulling the transmission out. People think that to prep a car for sale it will take a lot of time and likely a good amount of money, but I was not willing to give up either of those thing. It was time to sell the beast, awful paint and all. Here’s how I got it ready.Continue reading “How to Prep a Hooptie for Sale”

When you lose a long-time employee, there are always mixed emotions. The boss in me races through my mind, scrambling, wondering how will we fill the gap, who will do the work? The regular guy in me is excited for the opportunities to come, the pride in seeing someone whose work you respect and like on a personal level moving forward in his career and life. All the while wondering about the anxiety and courage it requires to take that leap. Today was Andy Sheehan‘s last day and I don’t believe we yet have any idea what void he’s left in our creative and personal lives.

Once, long ago, a third of the way into my tenure here at Streetside, I wrote about one of my favorite cars of all time: the Caterham Seven. It wasn’t a review, since my chances of getting behind the wheel of a Seven could only be found with an electron microscope. This is no longer the case. Continue reading “The Caterham Seven 620R: A Review”

The Fast and the Furious franchise is not what it once was. It probably never will be again, though it may stretch beyond our living years, when Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson have used their immense riches to replace their withered forms with abnormally huge androids. After seeing The Fate of the Furious, I know that this is no longer a car franchise, but a superhero franchise with cars. Racing scenes have tapered off in recent movies, replaced by The Rock doing Captain America things, but Fate offered one token street race that very well may be the last in the franchise. I have thoughts.

The Thunder Valley Sand Drags were dusty. Dustier than a panhandle bean field during the Depression. Dustier than the room seems to get at the end of Braveheart. Each step and dropped cone sent up a pale cloud above the long field, but a strong, cool, southwest wind cleaned it up for us just as quickly. Saturday was my first rallycross experience, and the racing was so awesome that I didn’t mind a little fesh fesh. I didn’t drive this event, but by the end of it, I wished I had, and I will the next chance I get. You should, too. But don’t.

This week is the coolest auto show of the year. The show that will spawn bedroom-poster fantasy cars for years to come. It’s not about mass-market, business-floating people’s cars. It’s about luxury cars and exotics. Supercars and hypercars. The stuff dreams are made of. It’s the Geneva Motor Show, and the coolest cars always debut there. We’ve picked a few of the most notable examples from this year. So far. Continue reading “Geneva 2017: The Goods So Far”

I was getting that shimmy and shudder, with a dash of squeak. Any time I hit the brakes, they would emit a pulsing throb, and letting off the pedal would introduce a squeak in similar rhythm. It was time for some brake work, but instead of simple maintenance, I went for an upgrade. With Power Stop Brakes.

Ford has been killing it in the performance department lately. The ST twins, the Focus RS, the beautifully modernized Mustang line, and of course, the indomitable GT, which already won Le Mans. They’re all milestones of a company that loves speed. But yesterday we learned that Ford is planning a hybrid Mustang by 2020. Sorry. I should have warned you to take your glycerin before reading that. It is, however, true, and that could mean amazing or terrible things for one of America’s most popular sports cars. Continue reading “A Hybrid Mustang: Best Idea or Worst Idea?”